Back From the Dead

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And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Can God bring you back from the dead? Can the Lord raise you? From a state of complete and utter unconsciousness. I've got my friend Stephen Black today out of, is it Oklahoma, Steve?

Correct, Oklahoma City. Yeah, and Steve had a really, really interesting testimony. But you grew up, did you grow up in the church or was it Catholic? Yeah, it was the Catholic Church and went to parochial school and add that up until junior high.

So how did you come to Christ?

Well, through many events of truth over the years sown into my soul, but I think the major turning point was when I was confronted with eternity. with my little brother's death raised in You know, in Catholicism, parochial school, I knew things about God, but I had never really surrendered my life to Him as is known, you know, to have a biblical. Relationship that is intimate with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, not just a Savior, and not just a religion, but He became master of my life. And that all transpired as a result of a kind of a DNA of eternity that was marked in my soul even from childhood and seeing the pictures of heaven and hell and encyclopedias that were in my home. Catholic encyclopedias.

And I'd always had a respect and a belief that God was real and He was Almighty.

So when my little brother died on Mother's Day in nineteen eighty one, it turned our whole family upside down. And we were just really grief-stricken. And I was living in a very perverse and immoral lifestyle. Uh God uh really uh just After a year and a half of crying out, just flipped my entire life upside down. And I've been following him now for the last 43 years.

Yeah, and I met you at the NRB. I want to say it was back in 2023. And you have been a part of a specific ministry for quite a while now. What is the ministry that you do, Stephen?

Well, I was a part of a ministry called FirstStone from ninety two through twenty twenty three. and there was a takeover of that ministry that was something that I was blindsided by. And so I started Quorum Deo Ministries in twenty August of twenty twenty three. And I've been doing this out of my church now for the last three years. And what do you guys do exactly?

Well, we are it's primarily myself and a couple of others that do Pastoral care. public speaking, teaching on biblical human relating sexuality, doing some really intensives in dealing with people with addictive or very broken pasts where they don't feel like that they could talk to a pastor. They have someone that they can receive confidential care. That's what I do. I do that a lot actually.

Yeah, and I know I know you've been through quite a lot. I think you you had some difficult times as a very young child, is that right?

Well, sure. I mean, I was in an intact home. I had good parents, but you know, they were broken and they had that Catholic mindset and They were good people, hardworking people, but unfortunately, my dad was gone a lot in the day when they shipped him off in the military, Navy boxer, Air Force career guy. And so, in my formative years of development, being a toddler and even into a small child, I was sexually abused several times. And so, I was very confused growing up.

By the time I hit my teenage years, I had people yelling at me, beating me up, telling me I was a queer and a faggot and a sissy. And so, I was introduced to homosexuality and unfortunately entered into that world for about six years. And Jesus totally set me free at age twenty two. And so from here, from that point forward, and this is what I talked to you about at NRB back in 2023, you help other people to get free of that as well. Is that right?

Yes, I was a part of a ministry that had been founded with a part of the Exodus network in nineteen well actually, the formation really started in about nineteen eighty three. And so I was a part of that ministry. And then I was also a part of Exodus. I was the chairman of the ministry board when it collapsed. I'm actually the one who appealed to scholars and other people to help me with the Matthew eighteen process behind the scenes when, unfortunately, Exodus chose antinomianism and hypergrace and gay Christianity.

And so that took First Stone and many other Ministries out of Exodus, and then a year later it collapsed under the reign of Alan Chambers and Clark Witten.

Well, yeah, and the truth is, is that it's not just people who were dealing in that spiritual field of helping people come out of the LGBTQ movement who have gone to antinomianism. But I also see many preachers with this once saved, always saved. They say, Where, hey, you said a prayer when you were nine years old, and you're good. Yeah, you may lose some rewards for not living that out or for not walking through repentance, but ultimately you're okay. But Stephen, the problem is then I started reading the Bible, and when I read the Bible, I read something that was completely different.

Yeah, me too. And you start studying the words of Jesus. and how clear he has spoken to us the morning the very warning I got in heaven was Matthew seven reiterated to me to come back with a warning that there will be many And I think Jesus, when he said many, He met many. that will come to him on that day. And they will say, Jesus, you're our Lord, you're our Lord, you're our Lord.

And he will say, and they will say, We preached in your name, we did these miracles, we did all these things. And evil turn to them. And he will say, but I never knew you intimately. I never knew you. You didn't know me.

Because if you had known me, you sure wouldn't be now this is my conjecture, you certainly wouldn't be living in antinomianism. But what Jesus says, Yeah. continued to practice lawlessness. And there are two things from Axe all the way to Genesis, that has to be reiterated In the preaching of the gospel, there must be a clear path of repentance from all idolatry. greed and sexual immorality, which are all kind of there together in the heart of man.

Yeah, and and so You have dealt with that for a while. You believe in repentance. And, you know, I've always talked to people about wanting to see miracles. I love miracles. I love to see the supernatural, and I've seen it.

I'm sure you have as well. But what I think a lot of people don't realize is that in order sometimes to see those miracles, they have to be in a very difficult situation. And, Stephen, somebody one time told me they said that every miracle that Jesus ever performed, the first thing that happened was that there was a serious problem. And so, yes, we want to see miracles, but a lot of times we don't want to have those problems that lead us to our miracles. And something from, there was a guy named Sundar Singh.

I don't know if you've ever heard of him or not, but he grew up in a Sikh household in India. And one night he said, Lord, he said, If you're real, I need you to reveal yourself to me. And he said, If you don't in the morning, tomorrow, I'm going to kill myself. I'm going to take my life. And at 5 a.m.

A.M. The Lord Jesus Christ literally revealed himself to Sundar, and Sundar the next day. Told his dad, he said, Dad, I'm a Christian. His dad tried to poison him. And when that didn't work, he kicked him out on the streets.

He didn't even have a pair of shoes. And so, yes, he got to see the supernatural. The Lord revealed himself to him, but after that, he had a very difficult life. And so. A little while back, and this is what we're going to get into in the next segment, Stephen.

That you actually had a point where you actually died or almost died, and then the Lord revealed something to you. But we'll be right back with that. I've got Stephen Black. And he's out of Oklahoma. We will be right back after these messages.

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Alright guys, we are back with Stephen Black. Stephen Black and Stephen, you've got a website, is that right? I do. It's real easy. It's my name, S-T-E-P-H-E-N, stephenblack.org.

And then it's switching over here in about a month. It's going to be Corum Deo Ministries.us.

Okay. And on that website, they can actually see some other interviews that you've done. And I know in the past, you were really focused on what you were doing with Exodus ministries. And when that didn't work out, you moved on. But, Stephen, how long ago was it that you really just cheated death?

Well, two years ago. It'll be two years this February. And I didn't actually cheat it. I actually was blessed to be able to be empowered and to go through some more suffering and to embrace this new chapter and journey that I'm on.

So what happened almost two years ago, Stephen?

Well, my wife and I it was the week of february seventeenth. We both came down with the flu, I remember, because we had a family gathering that day. And then three days into it, Um, I was really running high fever, and I did that for about three more days. And I did something really stupid. Um, you know, the grown up in the sixties, the idea of toughing it out and Um staying in bed.

fever out, really dumb, dumb, dumb. Anyone over fifty who's having one hundred and three, hundred and four temperature need to go to the ER. I didn't. And so that Saturday morning or Friday morning, I woke up And I felt like I was like phasing in and out of my body. And I told my wife, I'm really sick.

I feel really odd. I checked my blood pressure, and it was really low. It was sixty over forty. And that's really low for me because mine usually runs high. And I told my wife, I said, I I feel the the strangest feeling and and I think I'm dying.

I was oh, you're not dying. And sure enough, I was dying. I took my blood pressure again. It went down to fifty over thirty. And the paramedics arrived and they had to take me to the hospital immediately.

They couldn't even get a reading. And that's when I started experiencing my first encounter with the omnipresence, the glory of God surrounding me.

So what happened?

Well, as they were wheeling me out, this like globe of glorious light, liquid love came all around me, and I could see it. It was like being inside of a bubble. And I kept telling the paramedic, this feels amazing. You know, it's like this light and this love. And they're saying, oh, Mr.

Black came calling. I said, no, you don't understand. Dying is wonderful. This feels amazing. I'm dying.

I'm dying. And I feel amazing. And they were like, kind of in shock. And of course, when I was in this bubble, I it was honestly, it was like being in the omnipresence inverted into timelessness, eternity. And I could see out this bubble, and it was everything in the world was in a state of entropy.

Even inside the ambulance, the guys, everything was like black and white, monochromic chromatic atmosphere, and it was so bizarre. And I could see how God sees the world, that everything is in a state of death. An entropy. And I was noticing this, and then inside the pubble, it was like my whole life. Flashed on, like if you were inside one of these, you know, on the domes.

type um you know astronomical um uh display inside one of these um You know, what do they call them? Uh astronomy. Domes. And anyhow, I've seen my whole life lash before me. And then we arrived at the hospital, and I understood that life was but a vapor from the experience.

And then all chaos hit when we hit the ICU. They misdiagnosed me. They said I was bleeding out, which I told them, no, that can't be right. I know I'm not bleeding out. And they said, all right, we're going to run more tests.

And they said, oh, you're so right, Mr. Black. Your kidneys are failing. You're in severe sepsis shock. Oh man.

So the doctors can get it wrong. Oh, yeah, they do a lot of times, actually.

Well, you know, when you were saying this about how death is a wonderful thing, I was thinking about that. You know, I heard years ago, Stephen, it says somebody told me they said that this world for the non-Christian is as close to heaven as they'll ever get. But for the Christian, this is the closest to hell that we'll ever get. And 1 Corinthians 15, verse 55 says this: Oh, death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin. And the strength of sin is in the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Man, I tell you what, when I hear that and when I hear your story.

Stephen, about how you weren't afraid of death, but you thought that it was wonderful. I think it should encourage a lot of other Christians. But then you said something el else happened when you got in the ICU. Go ahead. We were uh Processing what was happening to me, and they ended up, you know.

Talking about needing to intubate me because my kidneys had failed and they had to put me on dialysis. And uh my wife was somewhat um not thinking clearly. Courshe also was there, but Was on the other side of the flu, and she was sick. And my son was like, No, mom, you know, it's going to be okay. It needs to be intubated.

Dad would want this. And anyhow, the decision was made to intubate me because they told my family at that time I had a 1% to 3% chance of living through the night, that I was most likely going to die and to get my affairs in order. And when all that happened, of course, there was a great sense of grief, and hundreds of people were praying, thousands actually, and many, many people coming to the hospital and praying and praying and praying. And then, of course, then I went into this medically induced coma. And I and I remember as I was going to sleep, I started crying out to Jesus.

And it was like I was like through this fog trying to claw my way to find Jesus. And then all of a sudden, I was out of my body and at the throne of God. I didn't go through any tunnels or anything. I was just, bam, I was there. I was at the throne of God on the backside.

And it was absolutely transformative. Territorifying? Awe inspiring. And my life will never be the same. I am completely changed by this experience.

So what I mean, so what happened? And what what did you say?

Well, I was there and I noticed that it was the throne of God, and it was this giant mound. with this giant pillar of fire at the front end of it. And this thing is massive, like miles wide. The pillar of fire itself seemed like at least a half a mile to maybe a mile wide and went up into eternity. It was so huge.

It was this huge pillar of fire. And when I got up to the stairs, there were these two staircases: one like human steps. when I say human steps, like the architecturally, I studied architecture when I was young, but the height and the depth of the steps are the inclining steps that a human would take.

Well, there were also these angel stairs, and I never quite scaled to this day. I don't quite understand why I saw that, but I did. And they were there, and this angel was behind me, and we began floating up. These stairs, we weren't even caressing them with foot action, leg action. We were floating.

That was kind of an odd part of it. And then this angel was there and as we're like getting like three quarters of the way up to the top of the mound where the living creatures are flying around the throne of God, There are these living creatures that Revelation chapter four talks about, and they have. different faces and the lion face Creature, some call them cheripan or seraphin, but it was a creature, a living creature, that had the face of a lion. And he had, like, I think, flown through the fire, the pillar, and he was on fire. And his face was huge, at least, you know, the size of a normal.

Big adult lion. I mean, a huge lion, lion mane, and it was all on fire. And as he came down, he roared at me. And when he roared at me, the fire hit me. His fire light flew on my face.

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All right, guys, we are back with Stephen Black, and Stephen, you are telling your story. And you kind of got cut off for a minute there. But when you were telling your story, Stephen, I was reminded of Isaiah chapter 6, of where, you know, the Lord could, you know what I'm talking about? Yes, absolutely.

So what do you think? Go ahead. Well, as I was approaching the throne, it was definitely full of awe. and honestly terror. A lot of people don't understand that because they minimize the holiness and the gloriousness of God and they make God in their image.

But if they will study their Bible, Especially some of the words of Paul, like I'm reminded of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He said, Therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. In other words, even the littlest of sin can separate us from the presence of Almighty God. And so this lion creature was blowing down this fire on me. And telepathically, I understood him to say: no one approaches the throne of God unclean.

And when that happened to me, I thought immediately it was unclean, especially having lived such a horrible, immoral lifestyle in my past, even 40 years ago, but still realizing, oh my goodness, I've had thoughts, I've sinned, you know. And then I realized, oh, he was. Putting something inside me, but at that moment I was terrified, and then it culminated. And having like the breath of the Word of God blown into my soul again and reminding me of Matthew chapter seven, especially verses thirteen through the end of the chapter. and the words of Jesus there about the narrow way.

And Then immediately, as I was able to kind of to rest up to the edge of the platform, I saw all of a glassy sea. And I just briefly like seconds Saw that there were chairs out there, and it was beautiful and expansive and glorious. And immediately I was translated, and I was taken from that place, and I was put in this amazing, beautiful, manicured, gigantic field of the most perfect green grass, like a putting green, that was literally miles wide and miles deep. And there were trees way out on the edges, but all I saw was this field, and there he was. The Son of God.

So you saw Jesus. Did you see his face or? I saw him about twelve feet away. He was absolutely glorious. He was as bright and brilliant as looking into the sun.

I could make out the figure of who he was. And let me tell you, when you encounter the presence of Jesus Christ, There's no second guessing. You know. This is the Son of God. His face shined like a brilliance I have never seen.

Did you get to talk to him or ask him any questions? Oh, yeah.

So the first thing I did is I noticed that he had his tunic on and he was all white and brilliant. I can make out through the light that he had a beard. And he he it may have been that I'd just seen it before, but it did seem like. It looked like the portrait of the Prince of Peace, if you're familiar with that. But it was so bright and glorious, I couldn't make out that level of detail.

But the first thing I did is I bowed. And I said, oh Lord. Uh more love, more life, more light. And I I cried out with like a a a a broken So, oh, Lord, I need more love, more light, more light. And it was a theme my wife and I were praying, having gone through a terrible ministry betrayal.

With a former ministry I'd went through. And so that whole year we had been praying that. And Jesus, he was so kind. He looked at me. with such kindness and Just kind of like a pausing, meditative, almost like a smile, like a just a gentle look.

And I said it again. I bowed low and I said, Lord, I need more love, more life, more life. Help me, Jesus. Help me. And he looked up, I looked up at him, and he looked at me, and he said, so gently, telepathically, he said, you have it.

Now cultivate it. And I understood I have the presence of the Holy Spirit, but I have to yield. I have to allow the Holy Spirit to have more love, more life, more light. And that means me dying to self and being yielded to Him. And I knew that intrinsically.

And then the Lord said, Walk with me. And I don't know why I didn't run up to him or throw myself down at his feet to kiss his feet. I always imagined that's exactly what I would do if I ever saw Jesus. But I was in a I was awestruck. I was like in shock.

I was paralyzed but not. And I just walked and I listened, and he continued to download mysteries into my soul as I listened. And then we get to this certain place in this field, it was so beautiful, and he points to the ground and he says. Stephen. If you go bast here, You cannot go back.

You'll not be able to go back. And immediately I was transported and I was gone from there. And I was placed back at the bottom of the throne of God. And I looked up, I remember looking up, and I sensed the pleasure of God, Jesus, the whole atmosphere was like this, this, this. Atmosphere of pleasure.

And then all of a sudden, I was back in my body and woke up seven days later.

Well, let me ask you this. And I'm sure your wife and your kids and everybody was glad to see you, and especially the people who were praying for you. But once you have an experience like that, was it almost like a coming down, having to come back into this world, or Oh my goodness, yes.

So when all the memories came back, And actually, I was in such a state That I had to learn to walk and talk. Yeah, right. I was so debilitated from the sepsis shock. My body was in In shock, and really, I was wounded. And once I started putting the pieces back together, I could remember clearly.

I was I was overwhelmed. I was depressed. I had so many questions. I couldn't even talk about it for days. And then as I started talking about it, everybody started doubting me, and it was awful.

I was in torment. I was really hurting. And then when I went to step down and they put me in the therapy hospital, everything came back and I started having dreams and memories and I just wept and wept and wept. And I was so grateful, but I was also so depressed.

so depressed because I kept asking why didn't I get to see my daughter who died twelve years earlier, my twenty one year old beautiful Charity Hope. I didn't get to see her, didn't get to see any relatives like Don Piper and others that had their experiences. But then the Lord reminded me Was it I enough? I'm like, oh Lord, of course you were. You know, and it was like you changed me through this.

But I tell you, I've really had to work through it and worked through a lot of neuropathy, pain, and surgeries. And it took a year to recover physically to where I could even just, you know, walk a mile. And so this this last fall I have really been able to knock out miles of walking and even did a couple of trips, a missions trip, and God is really restoring me. Praise God. I was curious about one part.

You said the Lord told you, He said, if you go back, if you go past this point. You won't be able to come back. Did he give you a choice there, or did he just automatically send you back? Excellent question. I get that all the time.

What I remember. was there wasn't a discussion. People said, well, didn't you get to talk to Jesus about the decision? And I prayed about it afterwards, and the Lord said, well, what do you think you would have said to me, Stephen? I said, oh, I know exactly what I'd say to you.

He said, what would that be? Not my will, but your will. And I said, Oh, Lord, that's exactly right. And I know I would have said, not my will, your will. And that's why I know.

He sent me back. Because I don't think if I would have seen charity or my loved ones. that I would have chosen to come back. Yeah, and but you also said that when you saw Jesus, and I've seen many people say this, they say he was so bright and they said they just felt pure love come out of Jesus. You said that it changed you when you did come back.

How so?

Well, I think it deposited more so eternity in me and the ability to forgive in a deeper way than I've ever been able to, to where I can even bless betrayers Um like surpassing that which when Joseph was dealing with his brothers, he had a little bit of fun with them. A lot of people forget that part of the story. But then he said, what you intended for evil, God, Meant for good. And I am got a new level of trust in the sovereignty of God with everything that happens in my life. and a new level of faith and trust that I don't think I had before.

And I was in California for the Heaven Encounters Conference. And through even that experience, one of the mysteries came back to me, and it was a rebuke. Because when I came back into my body, I couldn't remember all the different things that Jesus spoke to me, and the rebuke was. Stephen. You believe little Of my love towards you.

You have no idea how deeply. I really love Yeah. And that was life-changing for me. Because, you know, with dealing with all of the brokenness of my own life and the rejection and all the terrible sin I was, you know, this place of father wound is a profound wounding in most men who don't have really good fathers. And that can.

Take you even into your senior years and doubt and fear about your relationship with the creator of the universe. And that's been. Restored in a way that I never dreamed. And so being able to forgive and really love people very deeply, especially in confidence and being there to be a source of encouragement. I mean, when do we need the most encouragement when we've sinned or when we feel like we're a failure or we've, you know, we done something stupid or whatever.

And God's fashioned me for that for people's lives as a gift.

So I accept the challenge and the duty to do so in these latter years to be a coach for pastors and leadership behind the scenes as they're some of the loneliest people on earth. Yet, Matthew 5:44 says, But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com.

So, hey guys, we are back for the last segment, and I've got Stephen Black on the phone. But, Stephen, I was looking at this, and it's Matthew 5, and we started in verse 44, but I'm going to go on and it says, For if you love those which love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the publicans do the same, and if you salute your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the publicans or the tax collectors do so? And he says, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father, which is in heaven, is also perfect.

And one of the things that I heard you say, Stephen, in the last segment was that you realized that when you were younger, you made a lot of mistakes as well. And I don't know if you're the same way as I am, Stephen, but when I realize how much I've messed it up in my own life, it makes it that much easier for me to forgive others. How about you? Absolutely. And that's what we're supposed to do in light of the gloriousness of the crucified Christ.

Nobody has suffered, and nobody has gave so much passion and kindness towards me as Jesus Christ has on the cross for the abominations of my life. And I am so grateful. I am so unworthy. And that is the truth. When Jesus said in his very wise words, you who have been forgiven much, Love much.

to the s the sexual sinner that came into Simon's house weeping at his feet. And the reality is, is that until we actually come into a revelation Of the forgiveness of God, we won't love much because all of us are worthy of hell. And until we get that revelation, we're not going to appreciate the depth of his passion and sacrifice. And that's what happened to me on the very night I got saved. That revelation was given to me, and I was absolutely mortified and broken over my sinful state in believing the lies of the Catholic priests that tried to seduce me and other people that had lied to me even theologically.

And so coming out of that darkness and the overwhelming love of God has transformed my life for over 43 years now. It sure has, and it has mine as well. And in Romans chapter 5, verse 1, it says, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And you said before, you said that you were rebuked because you did not realize how much Jesus loved you. And you know what?

I felt the same way in my life. I felt rejected by others. And you said that you felt a rejection, not only, I guess you didn't realize the Lord's love, but it must have been really tough when you had this wonderful experience. And then you said you came back and people didn't believe you. And I'm sure it wasn't just your enemies.

It was probably some people who were pretty close to you. Am I wrong? Oh yeah. And I ask other people this. I said, guess who my greatest pushback comes from?

And they ponder it, and I say, Christians. People who actually say they believe the Bible, they're the ones that push back on me the most. And then you come to find out, well, they have a view of Christianity that's powerless. They have a knowledge of the truth, but they deny the power of God to do the things He actually continues to do. And you know, I've seen that since I was a baby Christian.

So it's not been surprising for me, but. Dealing with the church and some of the unbelief that actually has permeated the church with cessationists and people that just say, you know, things aren't like they were in the New Testament. I'm like, we're in the New Testament. We're in the church age. We're in the last days.

And how much more can you be a part of it? I like what Jonathan Kant says. You've always wanted to live in biblical times.

Well, guess what? We're living in the end biblical times. And you need to get a hold of that. And miracles are getting ready to happen left and right in the outpouring before the coming of the Son of God. Yeah, 1 Corinthians chapter 2 says, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And so for me, when I see, when I read the word of God, you were talking about what cessationists may say or something like that. I, you know, I even heard Justin Peters one time. He said, you know, people will come to you and they'll say, well, what is the Bible verse that you, that you will use to show that you're a cessationist? And he said, there's really not one.

He said, but you have your theology. And I'm like, there is nothing in the New Testament that tells me, Stephen, that the miracles, the signs, and the wonders have stopped. Yeah, they try to use 1 Corinthians 14, and they really do a bad exegesis on that passage about, you know, when maturity comes, you know, these things will stop. It's not true. Or we wouldn't even have the New Testament, and we wouldn't have all of these encouragements to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to continue to walk in a godly way as a part of discipleship.

The idea of the power of the Holy Spirit not operating in Christians' life is one of the saddest um uh indictments against modern Christianity. Yeah, and so if somebody's right now, if they're not walking in the Holy Spirit, if they're not whether and and I don't know if you would say speaking in tongues or praying for people and they're not seeing people healed or deliverance or anything like that, where would you tell them to start, Stephen? themselves. They need to draw near to God. The promise is: if we will repent of our sins and humble ourselves, we'll receive grace.

Grace is the power of God to do his will. Titus 2, 11 and 12 says that it appears unto all men to teach us to deny ungodliness and to live righteously and godly in this life. It begins with our own hearts to draw near to God. In James chapter 4, it says, if you humble yourself, you'll receive this grace, because God is opposed to the proud. And if you want to try to box God in.

in your unbelief and actually say with your lips, unbelief and say these things don't happen.

Well, that's exactly what you're going to have. You're going to have a world of unbelief. But if you will humble yourselves, draw near to God, He promises to draw near to you, you have to submit yourself. And then, of course, you have to recognize the devil. And Reject the devil.

You've got to resist him. You've got to be firm in your faith and resisting him. And then he continues to say, Humble yourselves again and deal with your sins with great crying, mourning, and weeping. And then, as you are humbled and broken before the Lord, he will lift you up and he will show you and he will feel you. And, you know, there's a scripture in Acts, I want to say chapter 5, but it says, The Holy Spirit.

is given To those who obey him.

So Yeah. Tells us in Ephesians, don't grieve the Holy Spirit, but to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

So I guess we leak. That's kind of silly. But I mean, the reality is, is that we can grieve the very presence of God by our disobedience. And so we wonder why we don't see more of the power of God.

Well, what about what's going on in the secret world of people's lives? And until we make that comfortable, until we make it comfortable to confess our sins no matter what they are, I mean, one of the stats of thirty three percent of the pastors in the United States have viewed pornography in the last week. Where is the church safe place to confess sin and get right with God? In the spiritual battles and warfare that everyone is going through. And we do a very bad job at shaming people in the call to repentance in most evangelical circles.

Now, some are doing a much better job, especially with sexuality, as this whole sexual revolution has played out the last 50 years. But thank God there's this enormous power called grace to give us the ability to be overcomers and not live in sin. Not live in sin. And my Bible says in Hebrews 11, verse 1, it says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And then in verse 3, it says, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made to things which do appear.

And then in verse 6, it says, But without faith it is what? It is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And since your near-death experience, Stephen, has it been a little bit easier for you to walk in faith? Ross, but I've also noticed how utterly selfish I still am.

I mean, some people would say, oh, that's not true. And I'm like, yeah, it is. I know the motives of my heart. And so the consciousness of sin. Uh I think is more um I'm more in tune and sadly I'm also feel very um challenged, depressed even at times.

I just came back from the 1040 window. and have seen the utter depravity Of people living on the other side of the world, and it's burdened me when I think about the need. It's so great, it's overwhelming. And so what's happened in all of these burdens is a beautiful thing is this song keeps coming back to mind that I am a I'm a locked garden and I need to be set aside for Jesus. And I think as we even mature in the Lord, the Lord wants more time with us.

and be alone with him. and making things happen in accordance to the dance of the economy of heaven, which is called prayer.

So if we want things to really happen and see God move, we need to be spending a whole lot more time in prayer. And that's certainly been part of what has happened to me. And, Stephen, I want to thank you for coming on. But you've got, if people want to check out more from you, what is your website again? Forum JO Ministries.us or my name.

S-T-E-P-H-E-N stephenblack.org. Stephenblack.org. And they can check out more of what you're doing. Thank you so much for coming on today. God bless you, brother.

Thank you, sir. God bless you. This is Truth Talk Live. And I'll be on tomorrow, guys. I love you guys.

Truth Talk Live. Bless the Lord.